Counsils
National Minority Supplier Development Council, Inc. (NMSDC)
NMSDC provides a direct link between corporate America and minority-owned businesses. The National Minority Supplier Development Council is one of the country's leading business membership organizations. It was chartered in 1972 to provide increased procurement and business opportunities for minority businesses of all sizes.
The NMSDC Network includes a National Office in New York and 39 regional councils across the country. There are 3,500 corporate members throughout the network, including most of America's largest publicly-owned, privately-owned and foreign-owned companies, as well as universities, hospitals and other buying institutions. The regional councils certify and match more than 15,000 minority owned businesses (Asian, Black, Hispanic and Native American) with member corporations which want to purchase goods and services.
Women's Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC)
The Women's Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC), founded in 1997, is the nation's leading advocate of women-owned businesses as suppliers to America's corporations. It also is the largest third-party certifier of businesses owned and operated by women in the United States. WBENC works to foster diversity in the world of commerce with programs and policies designed to expand opportunities and eliminate barriers in the marketplace for women business owners. WBENC works with representatives of corporations to encourage the utilization and expansion of supplier/vendor diversity programs.
Dedicated to enhancing opportunities for women's business enterprises, WBENC works in partnership with women's business organizations located throughout the country to provide a national standard of certification for women-owned businesses. The organization also provides its corporate members and certified women's business enterprises (WBEs) with access to a range of B2B sourcing tools including, an Internet database – WBENCLink – that contains information on certified women's businesses for purchasing managers nationwide. WBENC is a resource for the more than 700 US companies and government agencies that rely on the WBENC certification as an integral part of their supplier diversity programs.
U.S.Small Business Administration (SBA)
The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) was created in 1953 as an independent agency of the federal government to aid, counsel, assist and protect the interests of small business concerns, to preserve free competitive enterprise and to maintain and strengthen the overall economy of our nation. We recognize that small business is critical to our economic recovery and strength, to building America's future, and to helping the United States compete in today's global marketplace. Although SBA has grown and evolved in the years since it was established in 1953, the bottom line mission remains the same. The SBA helps Americans start, build and grow businesses. Through an extensive network of field offices and partnerships with public and private organizations, SBA delivers its services to people throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, the U. S. Virgin Islands and Guam.